25,200 words per day?

Recently I took this free and quick online typing test just to see how fast I could type.

I still got it.

76 words per minute. Adjusted down to 61 to account for errors.

I hit about 60 wpm in typing class in high school.

You’d think after typing 5 million plus words over the years I could type faster, but I guess my fingers can only go so fast.

60 wpm isn’t bad though.

That amounts to 25,200 words per 7-hour workday.

Not bad.

Twelve 2,000+ word articles.

Problem is, good content isn’t produced at the speed one can type unless you’re a slow hunter and pecker.

I paused for 15 seconds between the last sentence and this sentence in this email.

That cost me 15 words.

It’s ludicrous to think we can produce good content at a reasonable typing speed.

It sure would be great though, wouldn’t it?

The best I can do is about 5,000 words in a day.

That’s hitting on all cylinders.

I’m exhausted after that.

It’s also content that’s not terribly research-intense.

If you publish a site in some highly technical field, 5,000 words per day are unlikely.

Same with complex product reviews. There’s no way I could publish 5,000 words of smartwatch review material in a day. Those reviews are painfully slow to write just because of all the research and testing needed for each watch.

But, I can easily crank out 5,000 words reviewing hotels.

Have you ever reviewed a hotel? It’s fun. It’s like reliving your trip.

I do it all the time… I should say whenever I stay in a hotel of note. I don’t review some interstate special that’s the same as 400 other hotels.

But if I go to some resort in a high-profile area like Hawaii or Whistler, I’ll review it. Lots of people do a ton of research on hotels in resort areas because it’s a huge cost.

10 days in a Whistler hotel will run you $10K easy. $20K if it’s a suite during ski season.

Same with a fancy resort in Hawaii.

People want to ensure they get their $10K worth.

I do the same when booking vacations. I spend way too much time researching hotels. I kind of like it so I don’t mind doing it.

Should content complexity influence your niche decision?

I think so.

I never considered it before. I’ve never discussed it before because it’s only recently come to mind.

Maybe that’s why there are so many travel and food blogs. That content is pretty easy to generate.

Okay, unique recipes aren’t fast, but if you’re making meals all week anyway, it’s not much extra work to snap a bunch of pics and crank out the 1,000 words into a blog post.

I publish recipes now. Not mine though.

I hired a woman who makes great meals for her family. She takes photos, does 1,000 words write up and sends them to me. She gets $70 per.

She gets paid to feed her family.

I get amazing blog content.

It’s a huge win/win.

I don’t really care what dishes she makes as long as it’s a dish that requires more effort than scrambled eggs or toast.

So how do you take content complexity into account?

It’s hard when starting out because everything is so new.

You don’t really get a sense of what’s easy FOR YOU until you’ve done this for a while.

Moreover, complex doesn’t mean it’s a bad niche.

I love my smartwatch niche because I love smartwatches. Those reviews are tedious and painstakingly slow to generate but it’s a great niche for me.

I don’t have the perfect answer, but I can provide some suggestions.

Choose a niche that you participate in or are interested in. This helps a ton.

If you love cooking elaborate meals for yourself and/or your family, that’s great. You’re a great candidate for a food blog. Me? Not so much. I don’t cook… although I found someone who does.

Tech stuff – most tech niches are painstaking. That means unless you actually love the tech, avoid it. Again, if you find someone who loves tech and you can pay them, then you’re golden.

Travel – Travel writing is fun and fairly easy but you do need to travel. If you take a one-week vacation each year to the same place, a travel niche probably isn’t for you. On the other hand, if you’re a digital nomad, it could be a great niche for you.

History niche – I love history, but only at a very superficial level. I enjoy historical fiction, the history channel, and historical TV dramas like “The Last Kingdom.” However, I’m not a historian. I don’t pour through primary sources to really dig into historical facts. The best I could do is regurgitate some historical fiction I read. Hence, I don’t bother with the history niche.

How to blog – as you can tell, I can crank this content out fast because I spend 7 hours a day managing niche sites. I know this stuff better than any other topic, niche or job. That said, I tend to avoid tedious topics such as “how-tos” that require a million screenshots. I’m not much into writing that stuff.

Sports – this is a great niche if you enjoy a particular sport. However, I don’t think sports niche content is super easy to write. If you’re going to do it justice, you have to get fairly technical and detailed. For example, I play squash and own a few squash racquets. I considered doing a racquet review site but I checked what’s out there and there are some highly technical racquet review sites that are better than anything I could publish.

Finance – I’m mildly into finance stuff but I sure don’t want to get into it enough to write intelligently about it. Compound interest is well covered on the internet. That’s about the extent of what I know. But if you took the CFA and live this stuff, writing about finance is second nature. In fact, do your family a favor and write about it so you spare them having to listen to you about the latest in finance.

Fitness – my 20 minutes per day on the stationary bike watching Netflix hardly qualifies me to write about fitness. I don’t live for fitness. I do just enough fitness to live.

Writing – I enjoy writing but I can’t tell you the difference between an adverb and an adjective. I’m not kidding. There are writing junkies out there who know all those technical aspects and can write about it in detail. That’s not my bag. I don’t think I’ve sent a spelling mistake-free email yet.

Sometimes it looks simple but it’s not

Have you ever found a KW and thought “that’s easy, I can crank that out in a couple of hours” only to dig in and realize you’ve entered a never-ending rabbit hole?

I have.

Usually, I see it through because if I can muscle through, it turns out to be a great article. SEO topics are like that. Often seemingly simple, but once you get into them, they become beasts to cover well.

On the flip side, I’ve often nearly disregarded topics because I thought they would be boring to write or complicated but turns out they were easy and fun. It’s a bonus when this happens.

Within the niche

Not only does this concept apply to niche selection but it also applies to choosing articles within a niche.

Every niche has simple and complex articles.

You might as well choose the simple articles, all else being equal.

I do.

Most sizeable niches have literally unlimited topics to cover.

Which means there must be thousands of simple topics to write about.

Start with those.

Again, I do this except when I thought it was easy and it wasn’t.

Not only will you find it easier to get started but you’ll have fun too.

And remember, what’s easy for you may not be easy for someone else. And vice versa.